311.6124/68: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Commissioner at Riga (Young)
27. Referring to use of word “criminal” in your 59, July 6, 5 p.m.
Department of Labor advises that in none of the deportation provisions of the immigration law is it permitted to use the word “criminal”; that the law specifically provides that the deportation proceeding is purely administrative and the courts have so held; and that aliens being deported to Soviet Russia are not criminals in the ordinary, or in any, acceptation of the term, but are merely alien deportees being sent from the United States because they are here [Page 700] in violation of law, determination of which has been adjudged after a hearing at which the individual was present and could testify, represented by counsel of his choice, and permitted to produce witnesses and documentary evidence.